II International Scientific and Practical Conference in Lublin

The II International Scientific and Practical Conference was organized by the Department of Physical Therapy of the University of Vincent Pol in Lublin from 26 to 28 April, 2012.

The main theme of the conference was “Providing effective medical treatment to children with disorders of the central nervous system”. The scientific program was prepared in collaboration with the Children's Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw.

The absolute priority of rehabilitation treatments is to enable the child suffering from disorders of the central nervous system to achieve a certain measure of independence. Therefore, all physiotherapeutic actions should be directed towards this target.

The organizers tried to focus the attention of the participants on the importance of early intervention, which is absolutely necessary if the child is to attain a maximum level of independence. This approach to rehabilitation creates favorable conditions for promoting progress in the development of movements, the psyche, speech, and at the same time, exerting a strong influence on the future adaptation of the child to pre-school institutions and school.

In our opinion, by providing practical information to the participants, the conference made a valuable contribution to their current knowledge in kinesitherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and specialized pedagogy.

An important feature of the conference program included presentations by parents of grown-up children and patients themselves, who demonstrated the difficulties of rehabilitation and different ways to overcome them. One of greatest problems in the medical rehabilitation of children with early organic lesions of the nervous system lies in organizing training courses for rehabilitation specialists, who should be familiar not only with the special characteristics of the child's body and different origins causing lesions of the nervous system, but they should also be familiar with real rehabilitation methods in order to treat the various consequences of early organic brain damage. Trained rehabilitation specialists with a multimodal profile should have thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and modern rehabilitation methods. The most frequent causes for lesions of the nervous system are the following: abnormalities in pregnancy or different types of complications during delivery or early postnatal periods.

It is namely these questions (causes of perinatal lesions in children and rehabilitation methods for treating their effects) that were discussed at the conference organized by the University of Vincent Pol in Lublin, which has already organized two international conferences (in 2010 and 2012). Members of the International Clinic of Rehabilitation in Truskavets, headed by Prof. V.I. Kozyavkin, author and creator of the new rehabilitation technique for patients with cerebral palsy, known as the Intensive Neurophysiological Rehabilitation System (INRS), took part in these scientific and practical conferences. The high effectiveness of INRS caught the attention of conference participants, who listened to different lectures given by employees of the International Clinic of Rehabilitation (Lviv-Truskavets, Ukraine). Lectures were presented by G.P. Lun, Candidate of Medical Sciences and Deputy Director of the Elita Rehabilitation Center (in Polish) and M.O. Babadahly, Assistant Professor and scientific advisor at the International Clinic of Rehabilitation (in English). In addition to reporting on scientific and practical developments in the field of rehabilitation through computer games and the rehabilitation of children suffering from perinatal lesions of the brain, the medical team from Western Ukraine showed slides illustrating changes in the neurological status and motor capabilities of young patients during treatments carried out according to Prof. V.I. Kozyavkin’s method at the Lviv and Truskavets Rehabilitation Centers.

Discussions between Polish and Ukrainian rehabilitation specialists will continue in the future.